I had a conversation yesterday with an up and coming actress who is taking her first step into the world of directing. She wanted to speak with me about my process creating Docket 32357 and my general thoughts on directing and film. I was flattered because I don't view myself as an expert on either one of those topics, but I knew I had experiences I could share. We ventured into the subject of web series. She had an immediate negative reaction when the discussion began. I understood her feelings on it. As we talked, I realized that the reason we both felt disappointed in many of the web based projects was laziness or more specifically, the absence of putting your best foot forward as a filmmaker.

I don't want to waste space by criticizing other people's work. That is not the purpose of this blog. What I would like to do is briefly touch upon the absolute need for filmmakers to maximize their current abilities with every project they undertake. I can't tell you the amount of times I've heard filmmakers raise perceived limitations for why they didn't create the work they envisioned. Some of my favorites are money, locations, bad relationships with crew members, "it's just a short" and "it's just for the web." In my mind, these are all opportunities to not only showcase your skills, but an opportunity to add to your toolbox. All of those limitations are potential contributing factors to creating work you didn't even imagine you could make. It all begins with the attitude that you're gonna demand your best regardless of the circumstances. There is no obstacle for that mindset other than yourself.

So we have one more announcement to make today and that is Docket 32357 is an Official Selection of the 2013 Newport Beach Film Festival. This selection has a story behind it that I would like to share. When the film screened last summer, a representative from Newport Beach approached Eljon and I. She introduced herself and proceeded to tell us that the story in the film was eerily similar to something that she lived through not too long ago. She had a pretty strong emotional reaction to the film and was appreciative that we made it. At that point, Eljon and I didn't care as much about her affiliation with the festival, but were happy we could make an impact on her like we did. It was fulfilling. So it is special for us that we are a part of the program this year. I will definitely be in CA for this screening. I can't believe how much love the west coast has given the film. It is really humbling. If you are in the area the festival runs from April 25th - May 2nd and I will give specific details when I get them. And as always congrats to the cast and crew.

I am proud to announce that Docket 32357 is an Official Selection of the Langston Hughes African American Film Festival in Seattle. This is a festival that I have been eyeing for a couple years now because of the good things I've heard about it. I'm happy that we are a part of the program. I've never been to Seattle so I'm hoping it works out that I can attend the screening. When I get more info I will post it on here. Congrats to the cast and crew.

When I was 16 years old I was playing basketball at the "E-3" courts in the Parkchester section of the Bronx. Parkchester is the neighborhood in which I was raised. It was around July 4th so hearing the sounds of firecrackers was pretty routine. There were a bunch of us playing on the court that day as my play cousin and his boys were practicing for a big tournament. Now envision a basketball court that had one entrance/exit and was enclosed by a singular high chain link fence that formed a semi circle opposite of a brick wall. One way in and one way out. There are benches along the gate. On this day, one of my friends was sitting on a bench and seemed to get into a random verbal altercation with three teenagers. I was sitting on a separate bench that was on the opposite end of the exit. I looked away not worried about the argument because we far outnumbered the three guys outside of the fence. A couple seconds later, I hear what sounded like firecrackers. Then I saw people running out of the courts for dear life. Finally, I saw my play cousin's coach on the ground, clutching his face and screaming. The three guys were trying to shoot us. I had to run across the line of fire to make it through the exit. This was my introduction to gun violence.
As I have stated on this site in the past, this topic is near and dear to my heart and that incident was the genesis. In light of the horrific tragedy in Connecticut, I have seen countless opinions, ideas and suggestions on how to tackle these events. I don't want to use this space to debate gun control laws or the second amendment. What I do want to shed light on is that gun violence cannot be limited to these heinous mass shootings. The problem extends far beyond one person deciding to inflict havoc in a contained space. This past weekend, there were multiple shootings in Chicago. Again. There were shootings in New York and Baltimore and Washington DC and Atlanta and Indianapolis and Oakland and many other places in America. It is time to acknowledge that we are experiencing a social and public health epidemic in the form of gun violence. This is an everyday occurrence that the media, politicians and too many citizens are failing to recognize. A conversation on banning assault weapons is not addressing the reasons, factors and results of everyday gun related incidents. There are too many people who have stories like mine. There are too many people who live in an environment where a situation like Newtown can happen to them literally at any moment albeit on a smaller scale. The national conversation cannot ignore this aspect. If we are to really make a difference we have to honestly discuss why gun violence is too normal in too many neighborhoods and then devise a multi-platform plan of concrete solutions. I sincerely hope we can use last week's tragedy as a springboard for improved safety, but I also hope we don't forget to bring the everyday tragedies into the conversation as well.

P.S. My play cousin's coach faked getting shot so the shooters would flee the scene quicker. It wasn't his first rodeo as they say.

P.S.S. I would really welcome comments on this topic. We have to figure out solutions to improve our way of life. Thank you for reading.

I am pleased to announce that "Docket 32357" is an Official Selection of the 2012 Orlando Film Festival! Congrats to all of the cast and crew for earning another screening opportunity. This is our Florida premiere and we are excited to bring the film down there. Our film continues to gain attention and we appreciate it.

Here is a new promo that I shot recently for FOX 59 in Indiana entitled "Indiana Made." Jeff Pinilla and I spent a week there to help with a new campaign the creative team at FOX 59 wanted to execute. I got a chance to immerse myself with the wonderful people of Indianapolis and get an understanding of the pride that they feel for their city and region. We shot for five days and were split up into two teams where we traveled around the city in a run and gun style to capture the diverse aspects of Indy. One day of the five was spent in the Chase tower with the station's prominent talent. The spot is directed by Jeff Pinilla who also did additional cinematography and is produced by Michael Brouder, Andrew Witham and Shelby Simpson. Let me know what you think of the spot in the comments below. Hope you enjoy it.

Hello and welcome to the brand new Pam's Son Productions website! I am beyond excited to finally have an official presence on the World Wide Web. I will keep the introduction short so you can view all that the site has to offer. My name is Randy Wilkins and I am a New York based filmmaker. I honed my craft at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts and was raised professionally under Spike Lee and the legendary 40 Acres and A Mule Film Works. I have been fortunate to be a part of some wonderful projects as well as enjoy some exposure for my own work. My most accomplished film to date, "Osvaldo's," earned a broadcast deal with HBO and enjoyed numerous festival screenings and awards. I am currently developing my first feature script.

You will find my previous work as a director, cinematographer and editor in the left hand column. Each category of work is headlined by a tab with a list of titles. You will also find my bio, which features a downloadable PDF version of my resume. Two things that I am excited to share with you are the "Spotlight" and "Look Book" pages. The Spotlight will focus on an artist from the arts world including a sample of their work. It can be someone from film, music, photography, spoken word or the visual arts. The Look Book features inspirations, references and thoughts regarding my feature script. These two pages are in development, but will be available soon.

I hope you all enjoy the site and come back often. There will be an email subscription list available as well so please spread the word. Thank you for stopping by!

Just a reminder that you can subscribe to The Pam'sSon Blogverse by clicking on the email subscription button in the right hand corner. It is located underneath the facebook banner. If you like what you read you can get email updates about new posts. I hope you consider signing up. Thanks.

The one thing I have noticed about all the music videos from the stones throw label is how simple they are. They embody the environment that they hail from and incorporate it seamlessly into their visuals. Its almost like they grab a camera and just shoot some everyday cali stuff and put the music to it. I love that. It keeps everything down to earth and relatable for the audience. I love this track and when I heard it on a compilation album I was real curious what kind of video would they do for it. Needless to say, I wasn't imagining something so straight forward. But what else would I expect from the best indy rap label in the world. Enjoy.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_X8AEHH15E&w=600&h=338]

This video is pretty damn dope and really showcases the various ways to incorporate fresh ideas into an otherwise drab and predictable genre. It doesn't surprise me that Flying Lotus would be willing to present something like this. Job well done.
http://vimeo.com/15568767

So I have not been on here for months. I sincerely apologize for those that are still even checking in on here. Since March 8th I was working as an assistant editor on Spike Lee's "If God is Willing and Da Creek Don't Rise" which is the follow up to his film "When the Levees Broke." I was an assistant editor on that film as well. The film is premiering August 23rd and 24th on HBO at 9pm. Once it airs, I will go into detail about my experience working on this film. But for now I wanted to link up an interview Spike recently had on blackreel tv in which he discusses the film and the state of the gulf coast 5 years after the man made disaster known as Hurricane Katrina. Enjoy!
credit: Black Tree tv/40 Acres

I'm proud to announce that Osvaldo's is an official selection of the San Diego Indiefest! The screening will take place in late March and when I receive more information about it I will pass it along here.
Also, if you are in the New York City area please check out Osvaldo's tomorrow night at the DUO Theater located at 62 East 4th at 8pm. The tickets are ten dollars and it is close to selling out. You can purchase your tickets at http://tinyurl.com/yk783sm

I did a radio interview with Spike Spillberg earlier today. We covered Osvaldo's, my introduction to film, how I feel about the depiction of characters of color in films, etc. It was a pretty dope time and I answered some people's questions as well. You can check it at http://tinyurl.com/yfzbcma Let me know what you think!

So a couple updates for you guys:
Osvaldo's is a selection to screen in the 6th Annual NYC Downtown Short Film Festival Audience Choice Screening Series. The idea is that the festival allows the audience to decide who will be the official selections in the main festival in April. So Osvaldo's needs as much support as possible to get into the bigger festival. We are screening TUESDAY FEBRUARY 23RD AT 8PM AT THE DUO THEATER, 62 E. 4th street in Manhattan. The shows are generally sold out and they will only sell a few tickets at the door if there any available but at a higher price. So if you would like to check out the film please visit https://www.smarttix.com/show.aspx?EID=&showCode=6TH4&GUID= to buy tickets. We need as much support as possible!

The second update involves my decision to join the twitter thing. Too many people told me I needed to take advantage of it for the sake of the film and my comings and goings. So I'm a part of it. Please follow me at https://twitter.com/pamsson. I'm working on putting a twitter widget up on the blog as well. I have no idea how twitter works so if you have suggestions and info on it please let me know. Thanks.

If you look at any of my films, or the name of this blog or my business cards or if you're around me long enough you'll know that my mom's name is Pam. It's really Pamela but no one calls her by that name. She only wants to be called Pamela when its official business because "that is my real name." Whatever. Anyway, my mom is a trip. We are one in the same in many ways. But one way we are not the same is the things we look at while watching a movie. So of course she knows Osvaldo's starts at 11:15pm. Why is she sleeping at 11:15 pm? The very first image of the piece is the big Pam's Son logo. She has no idea that is the case because she's sleeping. So she wakes up and starts watching it. The scene with Lemon and Gina outside of the barber shop is a pretty strong one. You know there is some kinda emotional thing going on. The only comment I get from Pam is "why are her earrings so big?" "Why did you make her wear those earrings? They're too big." Never mind the part about Gina or Ana Daisy's trepidations about going to an apartment where the spirit of a dead woman may be floating around or that there is a little girl ready to pounce at the first female stranger to walk through the door. No the earrings are too big. Okay, great. Thanks Pam.
We shot the apartment scenes in Parkchester (Thank you Naim and Catherine for saving my life). I was born and raised in Parkchester. My mom lived there longer than I did obviously so she knows the apartments well. The first thing she says when she sees the apartment: "Parkchester has new cabinets! When did that happen?!" Me: "Naim put those cabinets in. Watch the damn movie." Pam: "Oh ok. I knew they didn't have no new cabinets." This is going well with Pam.

So the big scene of the movie is the dinner scene. This is where all hell breaks loose. As its building, Pam says: "What's going on with those eyelashes? "They're HUGE!" Now I understand you may be able to see the eyelashes a little better in that scene but really?! I didn't even know if she was paying attention until she laughed when Glenda said "she's like Jerry's age!" At least I know Pam is present now.

Credits are rolling. She's quiet. Then she sees her name in the Special Thanks. THEN Pam sees the logo at the end. Pam: "HAHAHA, the best part of the movie!"

My mom is Pam. Pam is my mom.

P.S. Yes, I'm living with the fam. Its called 5 years of expensive ass graduate film school. But it's also called HBO money to get your own place by the end of the year. Haha.

So I'll be appearing on two radio shows next week to discuss Osvaldo's. The first one will be the Victor Cruz Morning show on urban latino radio which is an internet radio station that is blowing up. I was with Victor last summer to discuss our films, the festival scene and a whole bunch of other topics. Victor is a great guy and a great actor. The second show will be an interview with my man Spike Spillberg on his blog talk radio show. Spike and I met down in Miami last summer at the American Black Film Festival. When I confirm the dates and times I will post them on here for you guys to check out.
And I didn't know this until last night but Osvaldo's is officially available on HBO On Demand! Just go to HBO movies, click on ALL MOVIES and then find Osvaldo's on the list. Let me know what you think of the film.

Osvaldo's is an official selection of the 2010 Texas Black Film Festival in Dallas, TX. I'm excited to be a part of this festival again as my previous short film, "Harlem's Blues" won an honorable mention award in 2007. Let's hope we take home the big prize this time around! There will be more details soon. Thank you again for all the support of the film!